Vodafone Idea announced a partnership with Route Mobile on Friday, under which the latter will provide international A2P (application to person) SMS monetisation services via its artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) powered firewall solutions. Telcos must use firewall solutions to protect their customers from unsolicited messages. Route Mobile MD and CEO Rajdipkumar Gupta stated that the deal could generate more than $100 million (approximately Rs 832 crore) in annual revenue for the company.

The partnership with Route Mobile comes after the telecom operator completed a two-year contract with Tanla Platforms for similar solutions. Tanla will have a revenue impact of Rs 17 crore and a net profit impact of Rs 9 crore on a full-quarter basis after November 2023 if the deal is not renewed, according to the company’s exchange filing.

Route Mobile, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Route Mobile (UK), will provide its solutions to Vodafone Idea for a period of 24 months, according to the contract. The partnership’s effective date has yet to be determined, according to Vodafone Idea.

“Vodafone Idea is an important operator in the country and our firewall solution will further help them protect their customers against Spam and Phishing,” Gupta said.

Route Mobile said its solution leverages proprietary message simulators, traffic analysis and forecasting tools, business intelligence, data analysis and intelligence databases to offer effective blocking of illegitimate grey route traffic and monetisation of A2P SMS traffic on the network.

On reasons for not going ahead with the partnership, a spokesperson of Tanla Platforms said, “we differentiate on technology leadership and innovation – continuing this partnership necessitated financial structuring which we were not comfortable with. This was a mutual decision and best wishes to Vodafone Idea for the direction they have chosen”.

The termination of the deal with Vodafone Idea is, however, not related to Wisely ATP, which is Tanla’s anti phishing platform, the spokesperson said. The same was showcased by Vodafone Idea to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), after the regulator made it mandatory for telcos to deploy such solutions to control spam.

As telcos are facing a decline in SMS usage from traditional routes like P2P (person to person), monetising A2P or enterprise messaging is a key opportunity. However, some enterprises not only send bulk messages illegitimately through grey routes but also are sending fraudulent messages to consumers. In any way, telcos end up paying termination charges even for illegitimate traffic.

Route Mobile said the erstwhile Idea Cellular network was leveraging its firewall solutions till April 2022 to identify, block and optimally monetize grey route traffic on its network. Under the new engagement, Route Mobile’s solutions will be deployed across the entire Vodafone Idea network on an exclusive basis, the company said in a statement.